Black Holos

My fiance had surgery Thursday, so I'm caring for an invalid. He tore his left achilles playing soccer last weekend. He will be hobbling down the aisle in a boot at our wedding in two weeks. Poor guy! He came home from the hospital today and is slowly trying to get around with crutches. That has nothing to do with nail polish, just thought I'd mention it.

Ok, so if I had a favorite type of nail polish, it would probably be the black/charcoal holographic, since I keep buying them. I never have owned the original OPI MPJ, and probably never will (I'm not too keen on the idea of trying to track it down, but if I happened to see it someplace - HAHA - I'd pick it up).

I do own a few black/charcoal holos. I know I don't have Diamond Cosmetics' Chainmail Charm. I need it. I really should grab it since it's only a couple of bucks or so on their website, and I've liked the swatches I've seen of it. One day I will.

When I was out and about trying to track down the new Sally Hansens (I just want the flaky one... but nowhere here seems to have it), I saw the new Petites Color Fever line. They have a color called Black Diamond, which is really pretty close to Color Club Revvvolution. I was skeptical about paying $4 for a Petites nail polish, since their quality hasn't really been the best, and their original line costs what? A dollar, maybe two? However, I was really pleasantly surprised with Black Diamond. Observe!

The holo effect is fairly weak with this one, but it IS there. This is in indirect light. It didn't really come out much better in direct light. :/


You can at least see the effect a bit here.


Then I decided to do a comparison. Then I ran out of time to remove it, so I've actually been rocking a black holo "skittles" manicure for the last two days.. LOL.
Here's what I compared:
L'Oreal Bijou Crystals in B.Rebellious, Color Club Revvvolution, Icing Blackout, and Petites Color Fever Black Diamond.
Icing, your brush sucked. I love this shade, and the formula isn't bad, but the horrible mop-like brush makes this polish nearly impossible to use. I have some spare clear polishes lying about, and I think I'm going to try dumping the clear polish out and decanting the Icing polish into a bottle with a less shitty brush.


I had a terrible time trying to get a good picture of these four. Part of this is because I've been at the hospital a LOT in the last couple of days and just haven't had time.
My observations are this. The L'Oreal polish is probably my favorite of the four. It is the sparkliest. It isn't a "smooth" holo, but is a dark, dark grey that is interspersed with a TON of holographic glitter.
The Icing polish is the only one of the four that is actually BLACK. It also isn't a smooth holo, but is interspersed with holographic glitter.
Color Club's polish has the smoothest holographic effect and also the hardest to capture.
The Petites polish isn't technically a "smooth" holo, but it is smoother and the glitter is finer than in either the L'Oreal or the Icing polish. It is REALLY close to Color Club Revvvolution, and I think that if a person owned one, they wouldn't need the other.

Now for the pictures! Clicking on any of these to get a larger image might be helpful.
On my thumb and pinky are Petites Color Fever Black Diamond
On my index finger is L'Oreal Bijou Gems in B.Rebellious
On my middle finger is Color Club Revvvolution
On my ring finger is Icing Blackout


And again... this one shows the holo-ness a bit better.



Also, I had to run to Sally's this afternoon and found that they now have the China Glaze Poolside collection. They also still have all polishes buy 2, get 1 free. So I picked up half of the collection. I got Pool Party, Sun Worshipper, and Towel Boy Toy. The yellow and green didn't much appeal to me (neon yellow looks icky on me), but I was torn between the pink and the coral. I might go back later this weekend and pick up the other three, but I'm going to sleep on it first. :D


Our Sally's hired a new girl to work there, and while I was talking polish to the cashier, she butted in and was trying to inform me of the "new mint green trend" in nail polish. I wanted to LOL. "Excuse me, missy, but DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA how many nail polish blogs I read?!?" Also, mint green is SOOOOO last season. I dunno, it was just funny. But I'm not a bitch, so I said, "Yeah! I have a bunch of mint greens and I really like them!"

What a crazy week!!

I have been so busy this week, I haven't had time to do anything with this blog. And the thing is, looking back on the week, I have no idea what took up all my time. It just seems like I've been going, going, going!

First, I have mailed out five packages from my destashing post. It is now updated and current, as far as what I have left. Please go check it out here: http://lissasnails.blogspot.com/2010/04/destashing.html

Secondly, I am keeping an Excel spreadsheet of all the entries in my giveaway. I've discovered some new blogs this way -- it's pretty cool! If you haven't entered, go here:
http://lissasnails.blogspot.com/2010/04/giveaway.html

THIRD, I ordered some stuff from Urban Decay's Friends-and-Family 30% off sale. If you haven't shopped it yet, it ends Monday. Use code 1SFNF. I ordered a couple of things that were on clearance. Clearance + 30% off = dirt cheap. I got the Apocalyptic nail kit (of course), which appears to be gone now. I also got the Hall of Fame set. I'm debating placing another order to get their new nail set, but I'm not sold on the colors in it. Maybe I'll just wait til it goes on clearance... :D

Anywho, now that all that's been said... I actually do have some pictures to post. Oh yeah, and I chopped my nails off. After trying to get them to be long and pointy, I decided that I actually hate the way that looks, and shorter and squarer is just easier to deal with. So now they're just barely past my fingertips -- you'll see in the following pictures. :)

First of all, remember how I said I got that black glitter set at Icing for $5? I actually hate these polishes. The first coat is super sheer. The second coat drags and leaves bald spots. The third coat has to be really thick in order to cover up the mayhem left by the first and second coats. Then you have to deal with glitter removal, which I'm starting to really hate. Like, it's not even worth it to me to wear glitters because I hate removing them so much. Even with the cotton balls+tin foil trick, it's just a pain.

So I only ever wore three of these. Maybe I'll wear the other two one day, but I'm going to go ahead and post what I've got because I have a feeling that'll be a long time from now, if ever.


First up is the purple glitter, which I immediately gouged the hell out of by removing a power supply from a computer at work. This one is really pretty.


Then I wore... yellow? I guess? Or is that gold? Or a very light lime-green? It's sort of an ambiguous color.


Then blue, which I actually really liked, too.


The two remaining ones are orange and green (teal?), and yeah. Maybe one day. But not today.

This is China Glaze Strawberry Fields. I saw this on someone (a blogger, not IRL) recently and realized I had to have this polish! I couldn't seem to get a decent picture of it, but it's really pretty. I approve. I really like the tiny gold glass-flecks in it -- it makes it a very unique pink, in my opinion.


This was another of the Butter London polishes I got. It's called Teddy Boy, and it's a brownish-pinkish-mauvish color. I really liked this. However, those bottles suck. I found the application to be really difficult because of the way the cap is shaped. Then I read somewhere that they've changed their bottles (and obviously, the ones I got so dirt cheap were the old bottles... dammit). Maybe one day when I feel like shelling out too much money for nail polish, I'll try some of the newer ones. I just don't really like the idea of paying more than $10 or so for a bottle of polish. I've done it, but it's very rare for me. I am lemming Chanel's Illusion D'Or right now, though, and that's WAY more than I care to spend on polish, ever.


This was a polish I picked up at Sally's. It's Finger Paints "Magenta Mood." It's a pretty, foil-y, glitter-y magenta. Actually, it seemed to go back and forth between bright red and magenta. In certain lights, it looked magenta. In others, red.


I decided to do some fauxnading last weekend, and did this using China Glaze Light as Air for the base, and China Glaze Grape Pop for the stamping. I used a fauxnad plate that doesn't have a plate number, but these were just flowery. This is the last manicure I did before I chopped my nails off.


This was the first mani I did after chopping my nails off. This is China Glaze Grape Pop with Colorama Sonic Sunset (holy crap, I am loving the Colorama flakies!) on top. Later this day, I got my Urban Decay order in the mail, so I have only been wearing those colors since then. :)

Randomness!

I did some swatching and photographing today. Why is it that every time I have the time and inclination to do this it looks like this outside?



Where is the SUN?!?!

Also, here's something I've been withholding from my readers. When I was out of town last weekend, I went in an Icing, and found the black glitters set on clearance for $5. They were regularly $16! So I snapped those right up! I'm going to wear one a day every workday this week and post the results next weekend.
These are five different colors of glitter in a sheer black base. Whee. Here's a rather terrible picture of the set.


So, we have a special needs cat. He LOVES me. I am his favorite human EVAR. It's okay, I love him too. However, he really, REALLY needed some attention as I was painting my nails today. I finally became amused enough to try to get pictures. They're cool because he was moving around so much he looks like a ghost kitty in some of these!




This is when he finally just flopped down on me.


And here he is GLARING at me! Demanding attention! Needy cat!

Holos Holos Holos!

Yay! I finally put on my last holographic polish this morning and snapped a pic, so I can make my holo post!

I have one more polish to swatch, but that may not happen til early next week because I need to clean my messy apartment ASAP. I have a friend coming in from out of town next weekend, but I have to work this weekend. Priorities, meh.

I swatched most of these on a rainy, gray day here last week (was it last week? it seems like ages ago), and should probably re-swatch them today, while it's sunny, but I simply do not have time.

So... here we go.

First up is China Glaze OMG. It's a lovely holographic silver. I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I should just pick up the rest of this collection (or as much of it as I can get -- it's a couple of years old). I have OMG and DV8.
This is OMG outdoors in crappy light.


This is in my kitchen -- you can actually see the holo-ness better here.


This is Color Club Wild at Heart. It's a very nice purple holo. Also in my kitchen. I really do need to re-do these. ONE DAY...


This is Color Club Revvvolution. It's a charcoal gray holo that didn't come out nearly as holo as I wanted it to on my nails. This is also indoors.


This is Icing Blackout. It's not really a holo, per se, but is a black polish with holographic glitter. I loved this in the bottle, and it was nice on my nails too, but holy crap that brush was bushy and hard to work with. It was like trying to paint my nails with a tiny mop.


This is the first Milani holo I tried -- Cyberspace. I snapped this early in the morning before leaving for work on Monday. I really liked this one! It looks most holographic under fluorescent light. I just took it off this morning, so I could put on my other Milani holo.


And this is what I am currently wearing. Milani in Hi-Tech. Also... see how short my nails are now?!? I need to get to crafting... house cleaning first. Yech. This one had a really strong holo effect in direct sunlight.


Til next time! Hopefully I won't dawdle on my house cleaning and will have more interesting nail stuff to show you soon. :) Also -- I think my craving for holos has been thoroughly sated now.

Valentine's Day Mani

So I decided to do a new V-Day Mani today.

By the way... it snowed yesterday! A lot! By our measurements, we got 4" here.

I know, you guys in the northeast who have recently gotten a foot plus of snow are probably scoffing at our 4", but it's a LOT for Georgia! Really! Everything shut down!

Anyway. On to my second V-Day mani. I used two coats of Icing's White Wedding and used Essie Ruby Slippers on the tips. And... see the SNOW in the background?!?!




Later on today (today as in Saturday, although it's after midnight as I'm posting this), my fiance bought me an engagement ring. Even though we've been engaged for several months, I haven't had a ring. He proposed to me over pizza with a ring out of a gumball machine. Laugh if you will, but it was sweet as hell! It's funny -- we sent out wedding invitations last week. And now I have an engagement ring. LOL. We're backwards! So I HAD to take pictures! I posted this on my Facebook and I think I got more comments on my nails than I did on the ring! Hee hee.